Interesting Statistics from the Department of Home Affairs

Department of Home Affairs (DOHA) published report with recent migration numbers for FY 15/16.

The report indicates that a staggering 7.7 million temporary visas were granted to foreign nationals. Close to 2 million temporary visitors were New Zealand nationals travelling on Special Category 444 visa. Detailed breakdown of each visa subclass is below:

Temporary visas granted:	7.7 million +
Visitor visas granted	4.8 million
Student visas granted (includes student guardians)	310,845
Working Holiday Maker visas granted	214,583
Special Category (subclass 444) visas granted	1.9 million
Maritime Crew and Transit visas granted	345,873
Temporary Work (skilled) (subclass 457) visas granted	85,611
Temporary residents (other) visas granted	130,807

On the permanent residency front, the numbers certainly appear to be much lower with just 190 000 permanent visas granted. In addition, 133 000 individuals became Australian citizens.

Our humanitarian intake remained steady at 19 000.

The report also places greater focus on compliance and sanctions. Whilst the report indicates that over 99% of foreign nationals maintained their lawful status (which is impressive compared to other foreign jurisdictions such as USA where the number of unlawful non citizens is unknown), there were a number of compliance and sanction notices issued. Specifically DOHA issued 414 illegal worker notifications and removed close to 15 000 unlawful non citizens.

The number of people in detention sits at 2 200. The number of conducted patrols at seaports, wharves and waterfront environments and surrounding areas, including remote and coastal regions sits at 4 737.

Section of the report dealing with Border Management provided some impressive statistics. International air and sea travellers processed sits at 40.68 million and the number of International mail items inspected sits at 57.3 million with 37,936 instances of detection of illicit drugs at border.

DOHA staff numbers sits 15,432 for recent financial year which is down from the previous report.

Looking ahead it will be interesting to see what will be revealed in subsequent report which will be published in the new financial year. Whilst temporary and permanent migration number are expected to remain steady, changes to humanitarian intake as well as DOHA staff levels are anticipated. Full reports and statistics for current and previous financial years can be found here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-publications/reports/annual-reports

Source: migrationalliance.com.au